Survive in the wild-The most unique instructable to date

You have just woken up to find yourself on the ground in the wild.  Before getting up from your supine position you realize that, in addition to not being in your own warm comfortable bed, you have awoken in the underbrush beneath the canopy of what maybe a forest.  Fortunately the temperature is mild but on the cool side.  Low on the horizon the sun peeks through the trees and bushes.

You have no recollection of how you ended up in a forest.  Or how long you have been removed from your normal life.  There is a possibility that you are suffering from short term amnesia.  Obvious questions come to mind:  "How did I get here?"  "Where am I?"  "What day is it?"  "Who put me here or did I put myself here?"  "Am I in danger?"  "When was the last time I had something to eat or drink?"  Some of these questions you will figure out and others will forever remain a mystery.  The last day you remember was Saturday.  Nothing happened that was out of the ordinary for a weekend.  You did some chores.  Met up with some friends.  Overall had a good day.  In the evening [at home] nothing exciting was on TV so you visited some of your favorite websites and then by accident ended up browsing through the projects at the Instructables website [always a fun way to spend a half hour].   Then you brushed your teeth and went to bed.  Those are your last memories before waking up mysteriously in this unknown land.

You are dressed in jeans, a flannel shirt you don't recognize, a t-shirt, socks, hiking boots that you don't own, and undergarments [which you hope are your own].  As you get up you see a backpack nearby.  The most logical thing to do is to look in the rucksack.  In it you discover:

A lightweight shell jacket
Lens fire starter
Folding knife
Canteen [empty]
First aid kit [bandages, aspirin, trauma dressing, ect.]
Multi-tool

A pretty thin set of supplies to survive in the wild.  If I was packing for spending time in the woods I would also include:

Compass
Machete
Iodine or chlorine tablets
Waterproof matches
 

Step 1: Evaluate your physical condition

Since you don't know what events occurred that ultimately brought you to this unknown location it is important to make sure you have not been injured.  You run your hand over your body in order to ascertain if you have any injuries.  In theory some injuries will be noted by the pain you feel when you touch the area of the injury.  Stretching and exaggerated movements may also reveal injuries.  Of course you are not a doctor [neither am I] so some injuries could go undetected or under diagnosed.

Along your arms you discover some bruising.  Both knees are scraped and you have a cut along your jaw line.  Thankfully nothing seems broken.  You don't think that these minor injuries will kill you.

Comments

[galeb]

Great post, in real survival situations, you usually are not so lucky, ten days might be a more normal amount of time when you really don't have any idea of where or which way to go. I have been places where you could walk a hundred miles in almost any direction and find no signs of civilization. (Canada) but then again, it is your story. PS, best not to eat anything, you can easily survive for a week or more without any food, so eating something that could make you sick is not advisable, including acorns without soaking them for several soaks.

[galeb]

Please read up on solar stills, it is mainly worthless, at best you will get only a cup or two per day per solar still and most will not get even that much. You will usually lose more water from sweating while digging the hole and making the still than you can recover in a day. This is like one of the urban myths, people read about it and then because it sounds like something that will work, never really try it, but repeat the story over and over

[mr.mountaineer]

have you gotten around to finishing that book yet? I'd love to read it.

[dropkick]

Good Instructable, I liked it. But I have a few suggestions.

I would go with something other than the magnifying glass fire starter as they are almost useless. They only work if you have very bright sunlight, extremely dry tinder, lots of time, and amazingly steady hands (you have to keep the focus in one spot long enough to reach combustion.
I've seen people try this many times (myself included) and I've only seen it work once - and I have suspicions that the person who did it might have been aided by a stick match.

I suggest a bic lighter. It doesn't have the glamour of rubbing sticks or striking sparks, but the lighter takes up little room, operates even after getting wet, can provide hundreds of fires, and will last (if unused) almost indefinitely. I carry 2 of them whenever I'm in the woods (1 in my pack, 1 in my pocket).

Also if you don't have fire, and you've cut up your coat, your going to need to know how to build a shelter for the night. You'll be okay drinking unboiled water for at least 2 or 3 days even if it does make you ill, as the symptoms won't hit you until then (there's also a big chance you won't get ill at all) but you can freeze to death in just a night.
The easiest way to keep warm is to build a "nest". Pile grasses or leaves in a big pile and climb into the middle of it, covering yourself up. If you can't do this find someplace out of the wind and away from the water (it will be warmer away from the stream) and do your best to build some form of mat to keep you off the ground as the ground will suck all the warmth out of you.
If you can't do any of this, you'll just have to stay up and do calisthenics to keep warm (my cousin once got disoriented and lost at night in a blizzard and survived by walking a short path up and down a hill until the sun came up and he could see where he was going).

This isn't meant as criticism - it's just suggestions

[LazloH]

Your exits are N, S, E, W. You will likely be eaten by a grue.

[lukeyj15]

Kill grue with rusty knife.

[ssmeed]

Don't worry I'll find the key before the grue can catch me.

[ilpug]

I would highly reccomend soaking any acorns in water for at least a day, then beating them to a watery pulp and soaking them some more then draining before you eat them. extremely tannic things like acorns can screw up your guts something awful.

[ssmeed]

That can be true depending on the type of oak tree. As noted in the Instructable, some oak trees have less tannin in their acorns than others. Thanks for your comment.

[mad doctor]

Not bad! kinda like mine but mine is entering a survival situation without any survival gear available. Check it out sometime.

[FoolishSage]

Nice way of supplying an instructable! Sounds like a prologue for some bourne-type novel :D

[ssmeed]

Funny thing about that, I'm actually going to finish the story and put it on either a blog or a website like Smashwords. The process of "publishing" it might even be appropriate for another instructable.

[zazenergy]

Wow... love the story and all the advice!

[ssmeed]

This is my first Instructable so I thought I would try a different direction than most.